Gymnast Sender back for unfinished business

Arlington Heights native returns to sport after 2 years away, aiming to make his 1st Olympic team

March 03, 2012|Philip Hersh | Globetrotting

One in an occasional series on the Road to London for the 2012 Olympics, which open July 27.

David Sender figured the type of goldfish he bought for an eighth-grade science project at James Fenimore Cooper Middle School in Buffalo Grove would live one or two weeks.

Sender is now halfway through four years of studies for a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree at the University of Illinois. And the 99-cent goldfish, which he never named, still is doing swimmingly after moving with him to California and back to Illinois.

So the fish has been Sender's companion for nearly the whole gymnastics career he also thought would have been history by now.

A lifelong dream to make the Olympics lured him back to training last fall. Sender's showing at his first significant competition after two years away from the sport has convinced him and U.S. gymnastics officials that the London Olympics are not a pipe dream for the 26-year-old from Arlington Heights.

He was second on vault, third on rings and sixth in the all-around against a strong field in the Winter Cup last month in Las Vegas.

"He surprised everybody," said Dennis McIntyre, men's program director for USA Gymnastics. "I would love to see him earn a place on our Olympic team."

Sender had retired after the 2009 U.S. championships, turning down a spot in that year's world championships so he would have no distractions while beginning graduate school.

He figured his career effectively had ended a year earlier, when a sprained ankle kept him out of the U.S. Olympic trials a month after becoming national champion in all-around and vault. Other injured gymnasts were named to the nine-man 2008 Olympic team (six regulars and three alternates), but Sender was not.

"I honestly was satisfied with my gymnastics career," he said. "Stuff didn't work out in 2008 the way I wanted, but I could walk away assuming I was good enough to make the team except for bad circumstances. I thought that would be good enough to let me move on with the rest of my life."

Sender got his undergraduate degree in biology at Stanford in June 2009 and chose Illinois over Purdue for grad school mainly because in-state tuition was significantly less. He insists the strong gymnastics program at Illinois was not a factor; the chance to have a continuing connection to the sport was just a bonus.

In his first semester in Champaign, Sender asked Illini coach Justin Spring, a 2008 Olympic bronze medalist, if he could "play around" in the gym once the team had finished practicing. For the next two years, that was what Sender did.

Then he went to the 2011 U.S. championships as a spectator and realized — to his surprise — the sport had not passed him by.

"I'm not doing this again because I feel unfulfilled," he said. "But after watching the championships last summer, I felt I could still contribute to the national team and even the Olympic team. If there was any chance for me to do that, I kind of owed it to myself to try."

First, he got a one-year leave from grad school and told USA Gymnastics of his intentions.

"It was obvious he had really spent some time thinking about it and was serious," McIntyre said. "I think he needs to do it because he was left with questions about what he could have done in 2008."

Sender then devised a training plan he could implement on his own. Next came three weeks of intense physical training, to see if his body still could withstand the pounding. When he survived that, Sender began work on particular skills. Finally, he had to use the skills in competitive routines.

He is availing himself of Spring's knowledge and perspective throughout a process in which Sender tries to balance staying injury-free with increasing the difficulty of his skills.

"The most difficult part has been putting the stuff together into routines," Sender said. "There were days when I was unbelievably frustrated. I wasn't sure this was going to work until the Winter Cup."

USA Gymnastics had enough faith to add Sender to the 15-member senior national team before the Winter Cup. That also helped him with funding for an effort he had been financing out of savings.

Making the Olympic team is tougher than four years ago. Instead of six men per country in the team event, there will be just five.

"Consistency is the key," Spring said, "and David always has been able to compete very well under pressure. He needs (difficulty) upgrades in some events, but if he can get them, he has a very good chance to make the team."

Had Sender made the 2008 team, gymnastics likely would have been in his past by now. He didn't need to be juggling a sport and graduate school and dealing with his parents' reservations about getting injured in a comeback.